Blowin smoke

[Nine7yota]

Hello. I just bought my first yota. Its a 97 5v auto with 213k. I was aware it blew smoke but it was worth buying because of the price, body is rust free and the interior is show room.

Anyway.... When I start it up first thing in the morning the RPMs hold at 1500 and white smoke pours out of the tail pipe for the first 30 seconds. After that its normal. I know I'm getting coolant in the cylinders for sure. But what confuses me is that it runs smooth and no CELs. Could it be that once it cools down coolant drip in the cylinders? Is there water passages on the intake? I'm new to this motor so I have no clue. I havent done a comp check yet since I've only owned it for 2 days. Any thoughts? Advice? Thanks

 

[the great him]

how do you know there is coolant in the cylinders!? i start mine up in the AM or any time after its been sitting for a considerable period of time and get white smoke.... its condensation evaporating from the change in engine and exhaust temps, thats why it only last for 30 sec to a couple of mins... -mine is also a 97 SR5 v6 auto with 213k on the clock. ive never had an issue with mine, never had to replace anything major (i knew the previous owners -both of them). i highly doubt you have coolant in you cylinders, or a head gasket issue. just my thoughts on it... when you start up your motor is it dripping liquid out of the exhaust while its blowing out the white smoke?

 

[brian2sun]

I had 2 cracked heads for almost 2 years before it finally started throwing a miss code so the CEL (or lack of) doesn't mean anything. Mine ran really rough for the first 15-30 sec and then it would run great for the rest of the day. But after 2 years of driving it like that and trying to figure it out, it finally started missing all the time so I got it rebuilt with reman heads and found my original heads were both cracked.

In your case, is it idling bad during that 1st 30 seconds? Are you loosing coolant?

 

[BrianSD_42]

I heard that you can pull the spark plugs one at a time and look in the CYL. The one that has no carbon is the CYL that has coolant passing through it. The burning coolant will have removed the carbon.

 

[Nine7yota]

After work I pulled the truck into the shop to see what was in the crank case. Luckily the oil was flowing down in a nice "V". The outer edge was nice and black while the center came down like chocolate shake. HUH.... Looks like I have contaminants in the oil. Ok so I have coolant coming in. In all the Acuras I've worked on I've never seen the condition I'm having. Acuras pin the temp gauge and run like crap. Nothing in between.


thekid--- yeah man I was hoping it was just condensation. Today was warm so when I fired it up after work it was a nice smoke show. It was like putting Sea Foam in the intake. Its pretty bad.

brian2sun--- Yes it idles rough for the first 30sec. A minute or two later barely smokes. Sunday I looked in the radiator and saw nothing. The same with the res.. I was going to give it a week to check after I topped it off but since you asked I looked. Res is near dry and I can see coolant sitting on top of the first row.

brianemc2 42---- I changed my plugs today also. The threads had a little oil, had a little carbon and the electrodes was white.

Thanks for the replies!